The Clocks Struck Twelve
by alphazodiac
Summary: The final saga of the InuYasha team, told from a diffirent Character's POV every chapter.
1. You Still Believe in Me Inuyasha

The Clocks Struck Twelve, Part One: You Still Believe in Me.

I had just awoken. I didn't know where I was, except for the fact that I was in mud. Laying face-down in mud, to be exact. The unmistakable smell of blood and urine overwhelmed my senses and my mind was taken aback by a vague realization that I was face down in mud. I don't remember much of what I was doing up to now, other than lying face-down in mud, but I'll try to relate the story the best I can to you, if you can relate.

It was uncharacteristically dark outside, but it was justified- as it was night, and it often tends to be rather dark during the night. The full moon's shallow glow radiated off the surface of the river and into my face, it's light stung my arguably myopic human eyes.

My hair hung into the water where it stood still for a short second and was swiftly carried downstream, I looked into the frigid flowing fluid and stared at myself, and I stared right back. I didn't look very friendly.

I sighed, it's always so damn tedious without Kagome there to knock about. I have to admit (or maybe not) that deep down in the darkest corner of the most secret area of the portion of my heart that I never show anybody, ever, I love that girl, all the way to the center my fangs.

Tracing algorithmic patterns into the soil, my hand clenched into a fist of rage, I pounded the ground in frustration. Where the Hell was she? That girl that I would kick the SHIT out of if my skin got too thin to hold my demon blood in. That girl that had I come SO close to falling for and had come SO CLOSE to falling by my OWN HAND.

But (don't let her know) she's an angel. She was the kind of girl that always smiled and laughed and blushed and sighed and slept while I watched her. Why did she always come back? Why couldn't she see that I would never bare my naked feelings? Why did she insist upon showing her love? She always made it seem so effortless.

I often have this recurring dream. I would be a grassy hill, or on a straw mat, or on a blanket, or on pretty much anything, but that's against the point. The recurring part of the dream was what I was doing and who I was doing it with. I would always be sitting there next to Kagome, and then I would... kiss (whenever I woke up I was always strangely disappointed to find it was only a dream).I'm a virgin, and I had never felt anything like it before. The last thing I want to do in the world is hurt her.

The last time I had that dream, she bit one of my human earlobes, and I sighed softly as my blood trickled slowly down my shoulder. The blood would coagulate and coalesce into a small black speck that slowly grew as more blood was dripped into it from my ear. After a bit of this, the hardened blood had formed a solid rock-hard mass that flowed over my skin like some sort of full-body cage. I was trapped.

I woke up that night in a cold sweat.

I found out the hard way that she had a pair of false-bamboo wind chimes that hung outside her window, beautiful things, they would play the most wonderful music at the kiss of a breath, and I hated them more than anything.

One night, when she had been gone for way too long-

"Two days, actually" Said Miroku.

I decided to go to her room, she was sleeping, her arms outstretched, her hair falling down her lovely neck. I climbed through the window into her room and watched her for a number of minutes (although it seemed like hours), and at exactly twelve-fifty-six, she rolled into a remarkably... comfortable position (but please don't tell her that). I leaned over her to get a better angle of her slender body, and naturally, a remarkable strong gust of wind sent the wind chimes ringing. Instantly, my adolescent sexual curiosity had been quickly transformed into furiousity. In short, I had never run any faster.

I leaned back onto the sand and gravel that lay on the river bank, put on my kimono, and began to walk towards camp.

At the campsite, things were going as usual. Kagome was cooking something that smelled like worse than death, Shippou was examining the size of his tongue, Miroku was getting a bit too friendly with Sango's girl-parts, and she was subsequently slapping him. I swear, it's like bloody clockwork, every single day.

At this point I took a nap, but as far as I can remember, it wasn't in mud, it was under a tree, I think. Whatever.


	2. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times Kagom...

The Clocks Struck Twelve, Part Two: I Just Wasn't Made for These Times.

I am in pain. I am in Hell. My clothes are torn and what isn't torn is covered with mud, mud everywhere. I'm not sure what's going to happen next; all I know is what led up to this mess.

It all began when I was boiling some ramen noodles in a fire Miroku had started. Inuyasha had recently come back from his bath and his ears were twitching wildly, unknown to him.

Most people can hope to find water at the bottom of well, pennies if it's a wishing well. I went into my well looking for a cat, and I came out with a dog boy. Do I have some bad luck or what?

Miroku tells me that sometimes he likes to go to my house during the night. What he doesn't know is that I'm awake most of the time.

I used to have this pair of false-bamboo wind chimes, gaudy-looking things I had bought at some flea market. Once, I was lying awake in bed, as always, wondering whether or not Inuyasha would come that night. It's hard to stay still and pretend to be sleeping when you know he's literally in the room with you, he's so graceful, he makes it seem almost effortless. It's like walking on air, you need to keep moving or you'll fall right out of the sky. When he leant in close to my body it was a miracle he couldn't smell my staccato heartbeats or feel the heat from my blushing cheeks. His hair smelled like smoke, but not the cigarette kind, more like a campfire smoke, it was beautiful.

Then those bleeding wind chimes have to barge in with their bargain-price clinking. It wasn't even a very windy day, and before I could think. Those obnoxious plastic things had scared away my favorite dog demon.

I threw them away the next morning.

The ramen had come to a slow simmer and Shippou was looking eager.

Sometimes I think I'm sick. Sometimes I feel like a bullet trapped in a gun barrel, staring at the rifling on the walls, waiting to be told to do what I do best. Sometimes I think I'm going crazy.

I felt a pull on my soul, it was a jewel shard. Shippou once asked me what is was like to sense a jewel. The energy flows around the jewels in a sort of concentric circle pattern, growing more powerful as one gets closer to the center. It's like a huge, three-dimensional target, and the shard is the bull's eye.

Inuyasha was looking severely amused at Miroku's misfortune; Sango had no doubt slapped him for some petty sexual offence. The thing is, I think that Sango actually likes the way Miroku treats her, judging from the way she blushes.

I love the feeling of being caught off guard. I love the feeling of sleeping under the stars, the sky being clear as crystal, then around one-o'clock in the morning, it starts hailing and you have to move to cover (I use that as a excuse to sleep next to Inuyasha).

Sometimes I feel more at home in the past than in my own time. One thing I always think is that when you've been lost for so long, where you're lost in becomes home. I'm only a visitor in my own time.

There was this news report on the T.V. the other day, a girl with short brown hair crying and being carried to a police car. She had this pullover on with NEVADA in big letters on the front; the broadcaster announced that she had killed one of her classmates with a box cutter.

I'm always cautious whenever I sense a jewel shard. Once I believed I sensed one but it was in reality an ant hill that I had stepped directly into the center of.

That's what sensing a jewel shard is like- being eaten by billions of ants. Whenever I get home, I always take a bath, first thing, and the reason is to wash off all the ants, but they always come back eventually.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, my voice tattered from screaming.


	3. I Know There's An Answer

God I feel sick, it's at times like this when I wish I just could've stayed away from the entire shikon scandal. I stood up, mud clinging to my clothes, caking into my shoes. It was pitch dark, I couldn't see a thing except for stars floating above the treetops. Maybe this is what the void is like, I don't want to find out the hard way.

It all started when Sango was slapping me, no, damnit, I need to be more specific. She was slapping me on the right cheek, a bit of a rarity, but I doubt anyone notices but me. No matter how many times she does it, it always hurts, not so much physically, but more spiritually and emotionally, if you catch my drift. So, there I was, cradling my face, my hair on end. "You didn't have to do that, you know"

"You had it coming"

"You're just afraid, that's what you are, afraid of commitment-"

At this point, I realized my mistake, a bit too late, as she had already slapped my other cheek, placing symmectrical hand marks on my face. Sango turned to look at Kagome.

"Why don't you follow her around? She's so much more..." She shivvered "...Receptive than me, I mean look at her! She certainly needs a lesson in modesty..." She blushed and brushed her hair out of her face, sipping her tea.

"Well, you're right..." I mumbled "Either her legs are getting longer or her skirt is getting shorter..." I gazed into her eyes, smirking. "But Inu-Yasha would kill me, he's always saying he can go on without her, but he's really just kidding himself..." I sighed and laid back next to her, I put my hand on her shoulder. Luckily enough, she tolerated it, and I just say there and closed my eyes, in extacy.

I remember having a dream, there was this old man that came up to me and told me something along the lines of "Love and libido are inversely proportional" or something along those lines, then I woke up, stupid old men, ruining my dreams. I also once had a dream that I was a taiko virtuoso, dreams are lies, very delibrate lies.

The only thing I love more than girls is, you know, uh... Testing my boundaries with girls, so, of course, Sango is no exception to the rule. So I laid my head on her shoulder, sighing deeply, and I move my hand to caress her hair.

Before I can open my eyes steel's pressed against my throat and she's growling.

"Hands off of me, you letch, the only kiss you'll be recieving from me is one of pain"

It was a simple phrase, but it hurt my heart more than that knife ever could've. She released the blade from my throat and I fell in the opposite direction of her and laid down on a patch of grass, my eyes shut tight. "I'm sorry, Sango-chan"

"And stop calling me that, I'm not a little girl like you, I've seen how you look at Inuyasha"

I could feel my face burning with shame as a bright crimson spread across my cheeks.

Sango stood up, without a word, and walked to Kagome, they began talking, but I don't even care anymore.


End file.
